Bumbershoot price hikes push fans to buy early

As we told you earlier, the admission price to Seattle’s popular Bumbershoot festival has been steadily rising for those getting their tickets last-minute or at the gate.

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But the number of festival-goers who fall into that category is shrinking, said Bumbershoot spokeswoman Michele Scoleri.

“Back in the day, most of the Bumbershoot business was done right at the gate,” Scoleri said. Now “we’re seeing a huge shift to people who are interested in the best deal.”

With the rise of the Internet as the first-choice kiosk for concert goers, the 40-year-old festival has evolved a hierarchical price structure that rewards early birds and puts the burden of higher annual production costs on last-minute buyers.

It’s also looking less and less like the cheap, home-grown festival Seattleites used to know, leading many of our readers to curse the at-the-gate price hike this morning.

You can avoid paying a record $50 for a single-day ticket to Bumbershoot this year — but only if you’re early. Or, better yet, if you register for free to become a “BumberFan” on the festival’s Web site.

Over the holidays, BumberFans paid $60 for three-day tickets last-minute buyers will have to spend $120 for come August 21. Another BumberFan sale will offer as deep a discount on the $50 single-day ticket, which is available in advance for $35, Scoleri said. But you have to sign up.

“We start selling tickets for the festival as early as the fall the year before,” Scoleri said. “So our patrons have months and months of opportunity to get the cheapest ticket prices available.”

So is it so bad that people who decide to attend Seattle’s hometown music festival in the two weeks before it begins — people who are less likely to be big fans of the festival or its performers — have to pay $10 more than they did last year, and $36 more than they did 10 years ago?